A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to visually attractive, stackable display platforms or pallets for display of goods in a convenient, accessible, protective and attractive manner. More particularly, the invention relates to display platforms or pallets with side walls that protect the product displayed thereon from damage, facilitate the display of signage to promote the product or the source of the product, and engage with the feet of another such display platform when vertically stacked one upon another in a manner permitting easy visual identification of a particular platform within the stack and retrieval of a selected platform from the stack.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Because shelf space in grocery stores, convenience stores, and other mass merchandisers is necessarily limited, competition grows ever more fierce among sellers of goods for a place on those shelves. As a means of maximizing the available shelf space within a particular store and also taking advantage of impulse buying and sales promotions, stores have taken advantage of end-cap or free-standing displays. End-cap displays are displays set at the end of the aisle and aligned up against the traditional aisle shelves while free-standing displays are those that stand alone or at least are not intended to be associated with the shelving units at the end of an aisle. Such displays have proven highly successful in moving product because they are easily seen, easily accessible, and focus the consumers' attention on a particular product, manufacturer, and/or distributor.
Despite the desirability of such product displays, there has not to date been any display pallets available which accommodate the particular demands of such display positions. One such demand is the need to protect the product from damage. Free-standing displays or displays that are located at the end of an aisle where customers are making a turn to go to the next aisle are in the line of traffic, so to speak. It is therefore not unusual for shopping carts, strollers, feet, floor waxers, mops and the like to hit into the product in the display resulting in damage to the product container and possibly to the product itself. In addition, water, wax or other such substances are likely to wash up onto the product package and further cause damage that may leave the product unsaleable. A display platform is needed, therefore, that allows for easy accessibility of product yet provides protection to the product.
A side-effect of damaged product is the problem of product leakage or spillage. Where a product's package has been damaged, the product may leak down onto the floor of the display pallet. If the pallet floor is solid, the spillage will pool and damage other product containers sitting on the pallet floor. The same problem occurs if the product is placed directly on the floor and spills occur on the floor and spread to the product. Thus, a display pallet is needed that has a porous floor such that any leakage, drainage, or spillage of product above will drain through to the floor rather than pooling on the pallet floor, minimizing damage to other product on the pallet. Also, it is important to have a display platform or pallet that is supported some distance above the floor so that spillage on the store floor will not reach the product, drainage or leakage from the product will have a place to dissipate, and there will be some ability to clean under the pallet. Use of outside displays, such as those displaying beer, soda pop, or the like, near the gas pumps of mini-marts, demonstrate another need for a pallet that will not only provide drainage through the pallet floor in the case of inclement weather such as snow or rain, but will always be durable and remain attractive when exposed to sunlight and vast changes in temperature.
Another significant demand of such end-cap or free-standing displays is the ability to build the display out of the consumers' presence and then move it quickly into place in the store. In an effort to accommodate customers' busy schedules, many stores are open twenty four hours per day or at least long day and evening hours. Therefore, there is little, if any, time where displays can be built on the sales floor without interfering with the free movement of customers, not to mention that it is preferable not to perform such custodial tasks as building displays in full view of customers. Therefore, a display platform which can be assembled in the "back room" and then quickly and efficiently moved into place by means of a hand truck, pallet jack, or other such handler would be highly desirable.
In addition, displays which are intended to draw the consumers' attention and close a sale should be attractive and offer information about the product and price that will entice the customer. The ability to identify the product, price, source of the product, or owner and supplier of the display platform directly on the platform not only facilitates sales and name recognition on the part of the customers, but such labeling also identifies the owner or provider of such display platforms. This can be important not only to prevent theft of such display platforms, but manufacturers may wish to purchase platforms and supply them to the stores so that they may be more likely to get display positions and/or at least name exposure to the customers.
Available space is not only a problem on the sales floor, but also in the store room. Therefore, it is important that any such display platforms stack in an efficient and easily retrievable fashion. It is well known to "nest" pallets such that the pallets may be stacked vertically. Such nesting configurations typically involve one pallet fitting inside the other in some respect, thus creating a stable stacking configuration. Where a pallet or platform is intended for display, however, it is important that the platform itself be attractive and free from damage. When pallets are nested within each other there is damage to the pallet fitting "inside" due to scraping of the surface. This creates a particular problem where the display platform has signage on its outer face. No company would be pleased to have invested the money for an attractive display platform touting their name only to have that proprietary signage disfigured. Therefore, what is needed is a display platform that is affordable; made of material that is durable and provides an attractive, easily cleanable surface; and one that will nest or stack in a manner which will not adversely affect its appearance.
Traditional wood stringer pallets are the types of pallets most often used by merchandisers for end-cap and/or free-standing product displays. These pallets have many disadvantages, however. First, these pallets are not attractive by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they are intended for use in transporting product on trucks or rail cars or for storage of products in a warehouse, and they look the part. Stores go to great lengths to compensate for this unattractiveness, painting the pallets or even wrapping them in decorated paper to completely disguise them from view. Needless to say, such efforts are expensive both in dollars and in time. Even decorated, these wood pallets leave a lot to be desired.
Recently there have been environmental concerns relating to wooden pallets as well. These pallets break down, become discarded, and clutter the environment. Wooden pallets also have sanitation problems as food and water spills and leakage can seep into the grain of the wood where bacteria forms creating health hazards. Such wooden pallets can never be completely cleaned and thus present a health and odor problem for retail stores using wooden pallets for display purposes. For more information on the disadvantages of using wooden pallets, see for example, "Wooden pallets present environmental concern," The Kansas City Star, Apr. 11, 1998, at B-1 and B-3, col.1.
The typical grocery store wood-stringer pallet, commonly called a GMA (Grocery Manufacturing Association) pallet is standardized at forty inches by forty-eight inches principally to comport to the dimensions of semi-trailers, warehouse racking configurations, and to achieve a standard dimension so that pallets may be freely exchanged between various vendors. When used as a display pallet, one or more pallets are typically aligned on the floor with their forty-eight inch sides abutting the end of the store shelving unit. Due to the stringers running across the forty-eight inch length, these pallets are inaccessible by a pallet jack, hand truck, or other such handler device from the "front" of the display. Because the aisles between adjacent store shelves are restricted in size, it is typically impossible to maneuver the handler to a position where the pallet can be lifted from its forty inch side. This means that the pallets must be first decorated (to disguise their unattractiveness), then set into the desired location on the sales floor, the product is then wheeled out onto the sales floor on a hand truck, and the display is "built" or loaded with product in its place of display.
As discussed previously, this process consumes time, money and necessitates either inconveniencing customers while such displays are being built or requiring employees to stay after closing hours to build the displays. Again, it is demonstrated that what is needed is a display that is: attractive without the need for additional and expensive decor; easy to clean; durable; and accessible from all four sides with a hand-truck or pallet jack so that the display thereon may be created or built in a back room and then quickly and easily moved into place on the sales floor.
The other type of display device used for display of goods on end-caps or free-standing on a store's sales floor are simple display stands. Such display stands are typically trays or platforms, standing flat or nearly so against the floor on all sides, having no means for entry on any side by a pallet jack or hand truck. These platforms do not have side walls extending up from the display stand floor to protect the product from external damage.
Therefore, it would eliminate a number of problems and be a great benefit to retailers and other merchandisers to have available a display pallet which could be easily cleaned and even sterilized. Further, a pallet which permitted cleaning of the area underneath the pallet while the pallet was loaded, and which protected the lower levels of product situated on the pallet would also solve a significant problem for retailers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,108, to Thurman, incorporated herein by reference, teaches a tray of this type. While indicated in Thurman at col. 1, lines 7-11, that molded plastic trays of this type may be of many different shapes or configurations, it is taught that the preferred embodiment "has shallow side walls which terminate in a horizontal flange (col. 2, lines 21-23). As such, it would not be obvious either to extend the sidewalls upwardly to include signage nor to add feet to allow for lifting and moving of the tray by a pallet handler such as a pallet jack or pallet truck. Indeed, as noted in FIGS. 1 and 2-5, the trays of Thurman have no feet and rest directly on the floor or other surface on which they are posited. There are no insertion points where tines of a pallet handler could be introduced to move the tray into place on the sales floor. In fact, Thurman teaches away from extended side walls or feet as one of the main goals of Thurman in designing and making such trays is to minimize costs by minimizing the quantity of plastic material (Col. 1, lines 13-17). There is no indication in Thurman of a means for vertically stacking such trays.
Moreover, even if these trays were capable of being vertically stacked, there is no teaching of avoiding contact between the outside face of one tray and the inside of a nesting tray so as to avoid scratching or marring. Nor is there any teaching in Thurman that would make obvious adding feet or other means such that a particular tray could be identified and retrieved from a vertical display by, for example a forklift.
The patents to Flum, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,653,651; 4,801,024 and 4,750,623 teach stackable display trays formed to engage the particular product being stacked thereon, in particular, beverage containers such as two liter bottles or six-packs of bottles. Flum recognizes the desirability of associating signage capabilities with the display unit ('623 and '651, 203, FIG. 19; '651, 208, FIGS. 23-24). The signage means taught in Flum, however, requires additional elements such as frame members or rods ('623 and '651, 180 and 182, FIG. 19; '651,210, FIG. 23), extending vertically above the uppermost shelf members 14 or 156, respectively. These frame members or rods are particularly adapted for storage of unused shelf members and have the disadvantage of requiring more floor space for the display device because of the space taken up by the frame members, the rods, the stored shelves; and, in yet another embodiment, the holding member 16 ('623 and '651, FIG. 6).
In addition to taking up space by, for example, requiring the display unit to stand out from the wall or shelf aisle against which it is placed, these additional elements add to the cost of the display device, requiring more molds, more expense for the molding process, more plastic. As previously mentioned, cost and space are valuable commodities in the merchandising business.
It would be more advantageous to provide signage right on the display shelves themselves. Flum acknowledges the need for extended side walls so as to minimize damage to product displayed thereon ('651 at col. 7, lines 21-28; '623 at col. 6, lines 34-42), but, because the display devices of Flum rely on the ability to efficiently nest the display shelves on support members at the back of the display unit, Flum teaches away from the idea of extending the sidewalls sufficiently upward to accommodate any meaningful signage. Moreover, any signage carried on the outside of the sidewalls in Flum would necessarily become marred and damaged due to the one inside the other nesting arrangement disclosed. Thus, once again, such display stands fail to meet the needs and requirements for in-store sales display devices.
Even in considering pallets used outside of the area of display devices, there are no desirable alternatives offered or suggested. Patents to Evans (U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,236); Anaelbeck (U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,888); Knight et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,927); Sanders et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,491); Pike (U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,495); and Griffen (U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,704), all incorporated by reference herein, are plasticized pallets intended for shipping and transport of product, not for display. As such, these pallets have no suggestion to extend their sidewalls to incorporate signage thereon, and in some cases, extension of the sidewalls would interfere with the ability to on and off load the containers or other large loads being carried thereon, for example see the patent to Angelbeck. Even if signage were to be included on extended sidewalls, the nesting arrangements suggested in these patents would once again cause marring and damage of the sidewalls when the pallets were vertically stacked.
In addition to resulting in damage to the face of the pallet, as mentioned previously, one-inside-the-other nesting restricts the ability to see the signage on any particular pallet when the pallets are nested and stacked vertically. This means of nesting also inhibits the ability to selectively separate the stack at any given pallet so as to retrieve it from the stack, as there are no openings for a fork lift or similar device to enter when the pallets are nested. The patent to Pike recognizes this problem and teaches the desirability of a space between the marginal edge portions of adjacent pallets when stacked vertically to permit easy entrance for the tines of a fork lift (col. 2, line 63 to col. 3, line 2).
While some space is provided at the outer corners of Pike for insertion of a fork lift tine, there is no suggestion for extension of the side walls for signage and thus no ability to identify any given pallet within the stack. Of course, there is no need for these features in Pike, as the invention is directed to use in transporting various goods, not displaying them. As discussed, it is desirable for a display pallet to have extended sidewalls designed to carry signage thereon.
This signage could be proprietary to particular manufacturers of goods. For example, a beverage company may wish to have its logo placed on display devices which it then provides to grocery stores for display of its products. Similarly, a cereal manufacturer may provide display devices with its logo, and so on. The store, as a matter of efficiency and conservation, would stack these display devices for storage when not in use. It would be desirable to have a display device that could be readily identifiable and retrievable from the stack so that the merchandiser could quickly and easily set up any display desired on the appropriate display device.
Another problem with the pallets that nest one within the next when vertically stacked, is the difficulty in separating two adjacent pallets. These pallets are typically quite heavy. As the foot of one pallet nests inside either the foot or the rim of an adjacent pallet, the weight of that pallet, as well as those stacked above, will wedge the pallets tightly together. This phenomenon will be appreciated by anyone who has tried to pry apart two plastic food storage bowls or two plastic glasses that have been nested, one inside the other. Even with the spacing provided for in Pike, the nesting of the one pallet inside the other will make it difficult to separate two pallets. Imagine a fork lift, reaching up in the stack, placing its tines in the open spaces formed between two of the Pike pallets, and lifting upwardly. Likely, several other pallets beneath the one selected will lift as well. As those are then moved off the pile, there is a very real danger that the pallets merely hanging on for the ride may let loose, fall, and could even injure someone, as well as doing damage to the pallet itself. One would most likely need to hold down on the pallet rim of pallet below the one being lifted to insure that the pallets were properly separated. What is needed therefore, and solved by the present invention, is a pallet that will stack in a manner that does not create this sticking."
The patent to Andersson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,156, offers another possible solution to the problem of separation of adjacent pallets when nested and vertically stacked. Again, however, Andersson has the disadvantage of one-inside-the-other nesting where there is scraping and marring of the exterior walls of the inner pallet where the legs of the nesting pallet fit over it. While there are adequate areas in which handler tines may access a given pallet, the way that the pallets nest one inside the other will result in the same "sticking" together of adjacent pallets in a stack. Further, the design of the Andersson pallet, with support legs on only two of the four sides of the pallet, would not be capable of achieving the weight-bearing strength necessary to hold heavy loads of product, such as 24-can cases of soda or beer. Without support on all four sides, a pallet according to Andersson of any significant size would likely bow in the middle when carrying such a weighty load.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that what is needed in the art is a display device for attractively and conveniently displaying product at the point-of-sale wherein the display device is accessible from all four sides by means of a fork lift, pallet truck, hand truck or other similar handler device a means; has signage incorporated on the face of the display device, and has the ability to nest the display devices one on top of the other in a vertical stack without excessive marring or scratching of the adjacent display devices.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a display device for displaying product that is strong, attractive, easy to clean, and accessible by a handler device from all four sides so that the device may be loaded with product and then readily moved into the place of display;
It is another object of the invention to provide a display device that has signage incorporated on its outside face;
It is a further object of the present invention to provide display devices that can be efficiently and easily stacked one on top of the other to create a vertical stack wherein the signage displayed on each such device is visible and readily identifiable;
It is a still further object to provide display devices that can be selectively lifted and removed from a vertical stack of similar devices by easy insertion of the tines of a handler device;
It is another object to provide display devices and a means for the vertical stacking of same that will not excessively mar, scratch or otherwise damage the exterior surface of adjacent display devices in the stack.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide display devices that will not stick to one another requiring prying apart to separate when such devices are vertically stacked.
The foregoing and other objects are not meant in a limiting sense, and will be readily evident upon a study of the following specification and accompanying drawings comprising a part thereof. Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein is set forth by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of this invention.